Schultz came from humble beginnings, growing up in
public housing in Brooklyn.

It is thanks to Howard Schultz that Americans know what a latte
is - and that they're willing to drop $4 on a cup of coffee.

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Now, the billionaire and driving force behind Starbucks
says he is "seriously considering" running for president.

Coming from humble beginnings in Brooklyn, Schultz has always
brought a sense of social justice to the way he runs Starbucks.
Over the last few years, that underlying quest for justice has
erupted with a new strength, inspiring both support and boycotts
of Starbucks, especially as Schultz has taken a stand against
some of President Donald Trump's policies.

On Sunday, Schultz said in an interview with "60 Minutes" that he
is "seriously considering running for president as a centrist
independent." In the interview, Schultz criticized both Trump and
the modern American political landscape.

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Correspondent Scott Pelley additionally noted that Schultz is
wealthier than Trump, according to a Forbes
report that estimated his net worth to be $3.4 billion.
Schultz responded that his campaign would be "fully resourced,"
due to his immense wealth, and that he would be willing to
release his tax returns immediately.

While Schultz left Starbucks in 2018, he still owns more than
37.7 million shares - or roughly 3% - of the company's stock. In
2018, Schultz's salary at Starbucks was $1 and he recieved $30.1
million in total compensation from the company, including stock
and options awarded.

A 'defining moment' shaped Schultz's entire life

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Howard Schultz at the Tokyo ribbon cutting of Starbucks' first store outside of North America, in August 1996.

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AP Photo/Koji Sasahara

Schultz was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1953. The child of two
high-school dropouts, Schultz grew up in a public housing
project.

It was here that Schultz says he experienced one of the biggest
defining moments in his life.

At age seven, Schultz came home one day to find his father
"laying on the couch with a cast from his hip to his ankle" after
being injured on the job. His father was an army vet and a truck
driver with no workman's compensation, no severance, and no
health insurance, Schultz
told graduates at Arizona State University in 2017.

"When I was seven years old, I had a defining moment in my life,"
Schultz said. "I saw the fracturing of the American Dream and I
saw my parents go through hopelessness and despair ... And those
scars, that shame, that is with me even today."

Schultz's mother, however, encouraged him to pursue an education
to open more doors for himself. He earned an athletic scholarship
to attend Northern Michigan University, but, upon arriving in
college, he decided he wasn't going to play sports at all.

Schultz took on a wide range of odd jobs in school and following
graduation. To pay for college, he worked as a bartender and even
sold blood. After graduating, Schultz worked at a ski lodge in
Michigan, in sales at Xerox, and at a housewares business called
Hammarplast.

Then, he discovered Starbucks.

A revolutionary coffee concept

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Tracy Bryant (right) and Roland Smith, (center), Starbucks employees, watch as a manager Justin Chapple makes an espresso at a Starbucks in New York, Tuesday, February 26, 2008.

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AP Photo/Seth Wenig

Throughout the '70s and much of the '80s, Starbucks was a
coffee roaster first and a coffee shop second. But in the
early '80s, Schultz joined the company and became convinced that
Starbucks could achieve a seemingly impossible goal: remain
premium while becoming ubiquitous.

Schultz had never wanted Starbucks to stay small like other
regional chains such as Peet's. In fact, Schultz left the company
for a brief period in the mid-'80s because he was unable to
convince Starbucks founders that the company could be an
international chain, not just a coffee roaster.

In 1987, Schultz acquired the Starbucks brand and 17 locations
from its founders, who decided to focus their energy on Peet's.
Then Schultz began planting the seeds for one of the most
ambitious retail expansions in history.

When the first Starbucks opened in New York City, The New York
Times had to define what a latte was (and explain it was
pronounced "LAH-tay"). Starbucks played up its exotic nature in
everything it did, down to its sizes, with "grande" and "venti"
providing a connection to the Italian coffee culture that
inspired Schultz.

"Customers believed that their grande lattes demonstrated that
they were better than others - cooler, richer, more
sophisticated," Bryant Simon wrote in his book about Starbucks,
"Everything But the Coffee." "As long as they could get all of
this for the price of a cup of coffee, even an inflated one, they
eagerly handed over their money, three and four dollars at a
clip."

Between 1998 and 2008, Starbucks grew from 1,886 stores to
16,680. Schultz took the chain from just an idea to an entirely
new kind of store that hadn't existed before.

Change that is bigger than coffee

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Starbucks

Starbucks now has more than 28,000 stores in 77 countries. The
chain reported net revenues of $22.4 billion in 2017, and the
company's market cap is roughly $84 billion.

While Schultz led the company to incredible growth, especially
after returning as CEO in 2008 after a period serving as
chairman, his leadership has also been marked by his continued
commitment to social issues.

In 2011, Schultz encouraged people not to donate to political
campaigns until the government addressed national debt. In 2015,
he spearheaded the "Race Together" campaign to address police
brutality and racism. In a 2015 New York Times op-ed celebrating
bipartisan leadership, Schultz said he wasn't running for office,
"despite the encouragement of others."

Schultz's political efforts have ramped up even more in recent
years. In September 2016, Schultz endorsed Hillary Clinton for
president - his first time publicly endorsing a candidate.

In December 2016, he announced plans to step down as CEO, saying
he would instead be focusing on Starbucks' "social missions" as
chairman. Since then, he has blasted Trump's attempt to bar
refugees from entering the United States, written in the
Financial Times about national identity after white supremacists
rallied in Charlottesville, and launched the second season of
"Upstanders," a series committed to highlighting people making a
difference in their communities.

"One and a half years ago, during campaign season, we began to
get quite concerned with the vitriol, and the hate, and the lack
of respect in American society," Schultz said in an event
promoting "Upstanders." "And we know there's a different
narrative. There's different stories. And those stories are in
every town and every city and every state in America."

He left his role as chairman in June 2018, reigniting rumors that
he would run for office.